[amit_mechengg]

Hi friends,
I am planning a trip to Tirupati on 24th of Sept i,e this month end. As a true BHPian i will be driving in my Linea with wifey, cousin and his wifey.

I will be travelling via Kolhapur, Belgaum - karnataka route.

I need some help on points below.

1. Can i reach on 25th and take darshan on 25th i.e sunday itself? is it a offseason or a peak season right now.

2. How are the roads via karnataka to tirupati? i have never been to south in my life.

3. I am not geeting accomodation via TTD website? what options do i have for accomodation.

4. I am planning to club Mysore-Ooty in this trip. Is it feasible and which route is recommended?

5. What else important places can be clubbed with this iternary? i dont want to miss important places in south- they have strong historic heritage.

6. Recommended hotels in Mysore and Ooty and budget.

Million thanks in advance for offering a help to novice person like me who hasnt travelled to south ever.

[mayankjha1806]

Originally Posted by amit_mechengg

2. How are the roads via karnataka to tirupati? i have never been to south in my life.

3. I am not geeting accomodation via TTD website? what options do i have for accomodation.

4. I am planning to club Mysore-Ooty in this trip. Is it feasible and which route is recommended?

5. What else important places can be clubbed with this iternary? i dont want to miss important places in south- they have strong historic heritage.

6. Recommended hotels in Mysore and Ooty and budget.

Ok lets solve this puzzle one by one.

1. I have no idea, these days its been busy all the time, do check they have an online booking link as well. PM me if you can't find it.

2. Last i went the roads were good, and one of my good friend also went like a month back and did not hear any bad road rants from him.

3. TTD accommodation (Not sure how others felt it) but i did not like it one bit. Just to make sure we are talking about same accommodation does it costs few 100 Rupees per day? if yes they are bad in my opinion. What we did was did the darshan and then come down to the town and stayed at some better hotels there. There are many just google it.

4. Well even Kanyakumari is possible , frankly without knowing how many days you have there is no scientific way to figure this out for me.

5. Well the list is very very long, depending on amount of time you have. Coorg, Bandipur, Kodai, Masinagudi, Wyanad, well lets just say there are many.

6. For Ooty what we did was stayed in Masinagudi and went up to Ooty (like an hour drive) spent the day there and came back to Masinagudi. Masinagudi and Bandipur are jungles for some awesome pictures of these places do visit @nilanjanray thread.

[ampere]

Originally Posted by amit_mechengg

1. Can i reach on 25th and take darshan on 25th i.e sunday itself? is it a offseason or a peak season right now.

- Should be possible. I hope you would be breaking some where.
- If you break at Tumkur for the night and start very early say 4AM, you can be at Tirupathi by 9-10AM.
- Now I would suggest stay at a good place in Tirupati (you also get good parking).
- Take the bus to Tirumala you would be in there by 12-1PM.
- You can get into the Sheegra-Darshan queue.
- Potentially you should be able to finish on 25th (but you dont know how the crowd builds up)

2. How are the roads via karnataka to tirupati? i have never been to south in my life.

Very decent roads. Since you are coming from NH4, you have two options:
- One via NH205 (Devanahalli-Madanapalle-Pileru-Chandragiri-Tirupati)
- Roads are very decent with no traffic, but not many hotels to eat.
- Route:
NH 4 to Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh - Google Maps

- Second option is the standard NH4/NH18/NH205 option.
- Dobbaspet-Bangalore-BP-Kolar-Mulbagal-Chittoor-Tirupati.
- 4L till Mulbagal and then decent 2L all the way. You also get hotels and CCD.
- Route:

NH 4 to Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh - Google Maps

3. I am not geeting accomodation via TTD website? what options do i have for accomodation.

I would suggest Bhimas Paradise. (Note there are 3 Bhimas hotel operating. This one is called paradise. Very nice and decent.

4. I am planning to club Mysore-Ooty in this trip. Is it feasible and which route is recommended?

- NH4 to come back to Bangalore outskirts
- A combination of SH35 NH7 and NICE to bypass Bangalore.
- Refernce:
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/route-...bangalore.html
- Route:
Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh to Mysore, Karnataka - Google Maps

5. What else important places can be clubbed with this iternary? i dont want to miss important places in south- they have strong historic heritage.

- Check out Srirangapatna when in Mysore.
- It has loads of History

6. Recommended hotels in Mysore and Ooty and budget.

- Ginger is ideal if you can get booking
- Dasaprakash Paradise (Note there is one near the bus stand). The one I mention a bit more upmarket.

[prabhuferrari]

Originally Posted by ampere

- Should be possible. I hope you would be breaking some where.
- If you break at Tumkur for the night and start very early say 4AM, you can be at Tirupathi by 9-10AM.
- Now I would suggest stay at a good place in Tirupati (you also get good parking).
- Take the bus to Tirumala you would be in there by 12-1PM.
- You can get into the Sheegra-Darshan queue.
- Potentially you should be able to finish on 25th (but you dont know how the crowd builds up)

Very decent roads. Since you are coming from NH4, you have two options:
- One via NH205 (Devanahalli-Madanapalle-Pileru-Chandragiri-Tirupati)
- Roads are very decent with no traffic, but not many hotels to eat.
- Route:
NH 4 to Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh - Google Maps

- Second option is the standard NH4/NH18/NH205 option.
- Dobbaspet-Bangalore-BP-Kolar-Mulbagal-Chittoor-Tirupati.
- 4L till Mulbagal and then decent 2L all the way. You also get hotels and CCD.
- Route:

NH 4 to Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh - Google Maps

I would suggest Bhimas Paradise. (Note there are 3 Bhimas hotel operating. This one is called paradise. Very nice and decent.

- NH4 to come back to Bangalore outskirts
- A combination of SH35 NH7 and NICE to bypass Bangalore.
- Refernce:
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/route-...bangalore.html
- Route:
Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh to Mysore, Karnataka - Google Maps

- Check out Srirangapatna when in Mysore.
- It has loads of History

- Ginger is ideal if you can get booking
- Dasaprakash Paradise (Note there is one near the bus stand). The one I mention a bit more upmarket.

How about devanahalli vijayapura kolar route. Is it not faster?

Also Conoor is a nice alternate than ooty. Less crowded and there are some hidden tea estates which are mind blowing.

Similarly mayura hotel by the banks of river Cauvery of srirangapatna is pretty good. Altenate to mysore. Online booking available.

[ampere]

Originally Posted by prabhuferrari

How about devanahalli vijayapura kolar route. Is it not faster?

The BIAL route I think much better than the Vijayapura-Kolar.
Its also a more frequented route. Hence I suggested that option.

Though I would love to know about recent status/improvements recent if there have been any on the Vijayapura-Kolar sector.
I am not aware of any.

[prabhuferrari]

Originally Posted by ampere

The BIAL route I think much better than the Vijayapura-Kolar.
Its also a more frequented route. Hence I suggested that option.

Though I would love to know about recent status/improvements recent if there have been any on the Vijayapura-Kolar sector.
I am not aware of any.

My brother took this route to go to chennai from Bangalore yesterday since we are in North Bangalore. He covered Devanahalli Kolar in 1.5 hours or so on an i10 with conservative driving. There was hardly any traffic and roads are excellent all through the way. Advisable for day time driving though! I got to know about this from our forum member gajadonga who took it a week back.

[Fauji]

Originally Posted by amit_mechengg

1. Can i reach on 25th and take darshan on 25th i.e sunday itself? is it a offseason or a peak season right now.

2. How are the roads via karnataka to tirupati? i have never been to south in my life.

3. I am not geeting accomodation via TTD website? what options do i have for accomodation.

4. I am planning to club Mysore-Ooty in this trip. Is it feasible and which route is recommended?

5. What else important places can be clubbed with this iternary? i dont want to miss important places in south- they have strong historic heritage.

6. Recommended hotels in Mysore and Ooty and budget.

Million thanks in advance for offering a help to novice person like me who hasnt travelled to south ever.

Ampere has answered most of your questions. My two cents

a) Weekends are generally busy in Tirupathi. However, you will be able to have darshan on same day, hopefully.

b) Stay in Bhima's as advised by Ampere. But, you can take your car up the hill instead of bus. However be prepared to walk a bit from parking area to temple queue.

c) Why don't you also club Coorg with this trip and spare a day for it unless you want to do Coorg and Wayanad seperately.

d) Also visit the Natural history museum in Mysore which is close to Mysore zoo. Kids love it.

e) In Mysore, try The Green Hotel. Excellent heritage hotel run by British couple.

The Green Hotel, Mysore

In Ooty Littlearth group has excellent options. Specailly Kings Cliff tucked into a corner of the city, quiet and truly British.

:: Littlearth ::

f) If possible, try and do a day trip Destiny farmhouse of Littlearth group - better stay there - awesome location.

[amit_mechengg]

Thanks a lot everyone for the valuable tips. after reading various posts and doing some calculations i am feeling a bit confident now and i have jolted down the following plan.

1. 24th sept- leave from pune, Pune-kolhapur-dharwad-hubli-davangere- TUMKUR- doddsepete-devanhalli-chintamani-madanpalle-pileru-tirupati.

Stay at Tumkur overnight and start on 25th early morning for tirupati.

2. 25th sept- stay at Bhimas Paradise and take darshan and leave for mysore on 26th as early as possible.

3. 26th and 27th spend in mysore and leave for ooty on 28th sept

4. 28th and 29th spend in ooty and see places around and 30th sept leave for pune again and try to cover co-org in the way and staty there for 1 day

yet to fix hotels in Mysore and Ooty.

Does the above plan look good to cover this places?

Also trying to figure out good fuel stations on the way.

[libranof1987]

Originally Posted by amit_mechengg

3. 26th and 27th spend in mysore and leave for ooty on 28th sept

4. 28th and 29th spend in ooty and see places around and 30th sept leave for pune again and try to cover co-org in the way and staty there for 1 day

There's not much to do in Ooty except the lake and the garden; 2 days is quite a bit.

Instead, start on the 29th for Coorg; there's plenty you can do there : coffee plantations, Abbe Falls, Tibetan Monastery, an Elephant park, Tala Cauvery. I'd suggest you spend more time in Coorg than Ooty.

[MCR]

Originally Posted by amit_mechengg

3. 26th and 27th spend in mysore and leave for ooty on 28th sept

yet to fix hotels in Mysore and Ooty.

Does the above plan look good to cover this places?

Also trying to figure out good fuel stations on the way.

Welcome to Mysore Amit. The dasara celebrations in Mysore will kick-off on 27.09.2011, Mahalaya Amvasya. So its a perfect time to be in Mysore.
You can book Hotel Ginger in Mysore, else look at Guru Residency. Both these places have good rooms with decent parking.

There are a number of places to stay at ooty, since its off-season now, you can find them in plenty.

There are a lot of fueling options on the Bnagalore - Mysore highway. There is one HP COCO bunk before Maddur, its easy to identify this bunk since it also houses a McD's.

[ampere]

Originally Posted by prabhuferrari

My brother took this route to go to chennai from Bangalore yesterday since we are in North Bangalore. He covered Devanahalli Kolar in 1.5 hours or so on an i10 with conservative driving. There was hardly any traffic and roads are excellent all through the way. Advisable for day time driving though! I got to know about this from our forum member gajadonga who took it a week back.

@Prabhu, Thanks for that update on Devanahalli-Kolar section. Looks like its good to take it,
I think what @gajadonga took was Chikkaballapur-Mulbagal (NH234).

Originally Posted by amit_mechengg

4. 28th and 29th spend in ooty and see places around and 30th sept leave for pune again and try to cover co-org in the way and staty there for 1 day

yet to fix hotels in Mysore and Ooty.

Does the above plan look good to cover this places?

Also trying to figure out good fuel stations on the way.

Originally Posted by libranof1987

There's not much to do in Ooty except the lake and the garden; 2 days is quite a bit.

Instead, start on the 29th for Coorg; there's plenty you can do there : coffee plantations, Abbe Falls, Tibetan Monastery, an Elephant park, Tala Cauvery. I'd suggest you spend more time in Coorg than Ooty.

@libran, wont it be too much to cover Coorg as well? Instead Amit take a day off in Ooty and visit the Emerald and Avalanche lakes. Its really worth it.
If time permits, he can also try the Ooty Conoor toy-train.

[Rahulk76]

Amit,

Refer to my link back here.. Hope this helps

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/long-t...ml#post2323967
Rahul

[libranof1987]

@ampere : Here's what I am proposing :

28th : Mysore - Ooty (~3-3.5 hours), sightseeing in Ooty
29th : look around more and then head to Coorg by early evening.

This is a good time to go to Coorg; hence I thought he could cut down on the time at Ooty.

Of course, I may be unaware of the other many things one could do at Ooty, so would take your word on it!

[ampere]

Originally Posted by libranof1987

rg; hence I thought he could cut down on the time at Ooty.

Of course, I may be unaware of the other many things one could do at Ooty, so would take your word on it!

Here is Lalu's TL. The lakes are definitely worth a visit!

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travel...ml#post1623244

[amit_mechengg]

do you guys recommend me Bandipur National Park and stay there as well? is it worth staying there overnight